Govt will speed up the construction of coal-fired power plants

Vice President Jusuf Kalla said Friday that the government would introduce a crash program to speed up the construction of coal-fired power plants so that PLN would be able to provide more affordable power supply in the future.

Speaking to reporters following a meeting with Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro and the board of executives of the state-owned electricity company PLN, Kalla said that increasing the number of coal-fired power plants would be a priority in order to help reduce the high operating costs.

Kalla did not mention how many coal-fired power plants would be built but said that the additional power supply that could be generated from the new plants could reach 80,000 MW. The investment to generate 80,000 MW of power supply would reach about Rp 80 trillion.

PLN's president director Eddie Widiono said that the construction of the coal-fired plants would be able to save the use of fuel by about Rp 25 trillion a year. According to the assessment of the state audit agency BPK, the use of fuel could cost PLN about Rp 41 trillion this year. "If we use coal we will need only Rp 5 trillion. It means that we can save about Rp 35 trillion a year," he added.

Meanwhile PLN's spokesman Muljo Adji said PLN hoped to be able to reduce the use of fuel by 1.7 million kiloliters of fuel oil this year thanks to the completion of three major coal-fired power plants, PLTU Cilacap, PLTU Tanjung Jati B and PLTU Cilegon, this year.

"With the diesel oil price of Rp 5,000 per letter at present, the operation of the three power plants can save about Rp 8.5 trillion ," he added. (Godang)